Real Name: Daniel Thomas Rand-K'ai (known as Daniel Thomas Rand
in the United States)
Occupation: Warrior, professional bodyguard and detective
Identity: Secret
Legal Status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record,
citizen of K'un-L'un
Other Aliases: None
Place of Birth: K'un-L'un
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Wendell Rand-K'ai (father Heather Rand (mother,
deceased), Yu-Ti (uncle), Miranda Rand-K'ai (half-sister, deceased), Lord Tuan
(grandfather, deceased)
Group Affiliation: Heroes for Hire, Inc.
Base of Operations: New York City
First Appearance: MARVEL PREMIERE #75
History: Daniel Rand was the son of businessman Wendell Rand,
who had once lived in the fabled city of K'un-L'un, which exists in an otherdimensional
realm. Wendell Rand-K'ai, as he was known there was the eldest son and heir
of Lord Tuan, who ruled K'un-L'un, in the guise of the August Personage in Jade.
However, Wendell was driven from K'un-L'un by his brother, who not only wanted
to rule K'un-L'un himself, but who was Wendell's rival for the love of a woman
named Shakirah. It was Wendell that Shakirah chose, and she bore him a daughter,
Miranda. Wendell found refuge on Earth and became a successful businessman in
the United States. In his absence, Tuan died and Wendell's brother succeeded
him as Yu-Ti, the August Personage in Jade. Wendell married a woman named Heather,
who bore him a son, Daniel.
Wendell sought to return to K'un-L'un, which ordinarily was only accessible
from Earth through an interdimensional nexus that opened once every ten years.
When Daniel was nine, his father traveled to Tibet along with Heather and his
business partner Harold Meachum in search of the nexus to K'un-L'un. Toppling
off a treacherous mountain passage, Daniel dragged his mother and father over
the ice shelf with him. While he and his mother landed on a ledge below, his
father dangled over the sheer drop of the mountainside and called to his partner
for help. Hoping to take over Rand's share of the business, Meachum instead
caused him to lose his grip and plunge to his death. Though Meachum offered
to help Heather Rand and her son, they spurned him. Attempting to make it back
to camp on their own, Heather and her son spied a long suspension bridge as
a pack of wolves attacked. Heather tried to hold them off long enough for her
son to get to safety and was killed in the effort.
Soon thereafter, denizens of K'un-L'un found the boy and took him to their
city. There Daniel was brought before Yu-Ti, who had secretly plotted the Murder
of both Wendell and Heather. Yu-Ti apprenticed Daniel to the martial arts master
Lei Kung the Thunderer.
Rand's training under Lei Kung was rigorous. At age sixteen Rand earned the
Crown of Fu-Hsi, king of the vipers, vanquished four foes in the ritualistic
Challenge of the Many, and defeated Shu-Hu, a mechanical being whose name means
"Lightning." Rand diligently conditioned his hands by thrusting them
into tubs of hot sand, then gravel, and finally rock.
At age nineteen Rand was given the opportunity to gain the power of the Iron
Fist. He was sent to battle the enormous fire-breathing serpent called Shou-Lao
the Undying which lived in a cave outside the city and which ferociously guarded
a brazier containing its heart, which had mystically been removed from its body.
In their battle Rand grabbed the serpent's body, which bore a scar which imprinted
itself upon Rand's chest. Killing the serpent, Rand plunged his hands into the
now unguarded brazier containing Shou-Lao's molten heart when he was through
his hands shone with a quasi-mystical force and he earned the title "Iron
Fist," for he could now summon superhuman energy to reinforce the power
of blows struck by his hands.
Declining to stay in K'un-L'un eternally, Rand returned to America when the
nexus reopened in order to take vengeance on Meachum for his father’s
death. While recovering from severe frostbite in the Himalayas, Meachum learned
of Rand's training at K'un-L'un, and returned to America as an invalid to await
Rand. Clad in the ceremonial garb of Iron Fist, Rand finally confronted Meachum
but took pity on the invalid and spared him. Minutes later, however, a mysterious
ninja murdered Meachum. Blamed for the murder, Iron Fist undertook the mission
of finding the ninja and clearing his own name. Eventually Iron Fist succeeded
in both tasks.
Iron Fist was befriended by Professor Lee Wing and his daughter Colleen, a
private investigator. Eventually Daniel Rand became the lover of her partner;
Misty Knight. Although Harold Meachum's daughter Joy and brother Ward long mistakenly
sought vengeance on Iron Fist for Harold's death, Daniel finally made peace
with Joy Meachum. Daniel claimed his inheritance as a full partner in Rand-Meachum,
Inc., thus becoming a millionaire.
However, Rand allowed Joy Meachum to manage the business. His activities as
Iron Fist had led him to become a crimefighter, and eventually he chose to devote
his time to acting as the partner of Luke Cage, alias Power Man, in their firm
Heroes for Hire, Inc. Through this firm Cage and Rand accepted jobs as special
bodyguards or detectives.
One day Iron Fist used his superhuman healing power to try to cure a young
boy named Bobby Wright of his terminal disease. The disease was a side effect
of the exposure to radiation that enabled Wright to transform himself into an
adult superhuman being who called himself Captain Hero. Iron Fist went into
a trance outside Wright's hospital room in an attempt to rest after the effort
of trying to heal him. In another attempt to help Wright, duplicates of Kree
"nega-bands" were placed on his wrists. As a result Wright suffered
intense pain. Transforming into Captain Hero, he struck Iron Fist repeatedly,
desperately trying to bring him out of his trance. Misjudging his superhuman
strength, Captain Hero instead seemingly killed Iron Fist before disappearing
himself.
During a return visit to K'un-L'un, however, Rand was exposed to deadly radiation
and was diagnosed with cancer. Almost immediately after, he was kidnapped by
the H'ylthri, ancient alien enemies of K'un-L'un who planned an invasion of
Earth. A plant-matter clone of Rand briefly took his place in the real world,
unknown to his friends. When the clone was killed during a particular mission,
Luke Cage was blamed for the murder. Cage was soon exonerated, but their hero-for-hire
business was effectively dismantled.
Some time after this, the alien Super-Skrull duplicated Rand's likeness, fully
assuming his identity in order to use the Rand Corporation and gain economic
control of the Antarctic paradise known as the Savage Land. This conflicted
with the plans of another company, Oracle Inc., owned by Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner.
Namor, Namorita, and Misty Knight confronted Super-Skrull, who, his plans ruined,
abandoned Rand's identity and fled. The assembled heroes set out on a search
for the real Danny Rand, eventually freeing him from the H'ylthri with the help
of Namor and the sorcerer Dr. Strange. Rand had found himself cured of his cancer
due to his chi meditations when in stasis with the H'ylthri.
Following the seeming deaths of most of Earth's heroes at the hands of the
sentient psionic menace known as Onslaught, the duo decided to expand the membership
of Heroes for Hire. The agency merged with Oracle Inc. - the corporation owned
by Prince Namor, the Atlantean Sub-Mariner - to protect the world from danger,
for a price. The original Human Torch, Jim Hammond, lined up the jobs; Iron
Fist acted as field commander. The team rarely collected its fee, however, and
eventually disbanded when Namor saw fit to diffuse Oracle Inc.
Hoping to share the wisdom of his other-dimensional homeworld with humanity,
Iron Fist initiated a summoning spell to call K'un-L'un to Earth. Tied to his
heartbeat, the kingdom eventually would materialize - merging with whatever
city he occupied at the time. But Junzo Muto, teenage leader of the secret cult
of martial artists called the Hand, forcibly seized the power of the Iron Fist
prior to K'un-L’un's arrival. He then drew the hero to Japan so the kingdom
would materialize in the midst of modern-day Tokyo. Aided by the feral X-Man
known as Wolverine and a number of the planet's mightiest heroes, Iron Fist
put down Junzo's plan and halted the amalgamation of the two cities. However,
he was unable to reclaim the power of the Iron Fist.
Later, one of Iron Fist's and the Black Panther’s enemies, Nightshade,
resurrected the Black Dragon in hopes to control it against the Black Panther.
She set the dragon on a mission to capture Panther's U.S. State Department handler,
Everett K. Ross. However, the Black Dragon had plans of his own. Instead of
capturing Ross, he switched bodies with Ross, for his own purposes. When this
was discovered by the Black Panther, the Panther set out to destroy the Dragon's
eggs. Not wishing to engage the Panther directly, the Dragon confronted Iron
First, restoring the power of his iron fist by using a small favor borrowed
from the Dragon's gods and creating an imbalance in his psyche that would brainwash
Iron First into fighting the Panther. By a narrow margin, the Panther was able
to render him unconscious, which helped restore him to his right mind. The Dragon
battled both heroes directly and was ultimately defeated.
Height: 5 ft. 11 in.
Weight: 175 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond
Strength Level: Iron Fist possesses the normal human strength
of a man of his age, height, and build who engages in intensive regular exercise.
Known Superhuman Powers: Through concentration iron Fist is
able to summon his chi (a Chinese word for one's natural energy) to spiritually
reinforce his normal abilities, raising them to the peak of human capability.
This includes strength, speed, stamina, and concentration, as well as self healing
ability and psychic rapport with others. By summoning his chi and focusing it
into his hand, he can draw upon the superhuman energy derived from the heart
of the mystic serpent Shou-Lao and make his fist inhumanly powerful and impervious
to pain and injury. This "iron fist" technique does not involve a
physical transformation of any kind, simply a psychic channeling of concentrated
natural energy. With his fist in this state, Iron Fist can shatter wood and
brick, deform steel, and punch his opponents with extraordinary concussive force
without sustaining injury to himself. The act of summoning and using his chi
for the iron fist technique mentally drains him afterward, and it can take him
any period up to an entire day to recover before he can use it again.
Iron Fist can also utilize the combination of his own chi and his superhuman
energy to heal his own injuries or to cure his own illnesses. By projecting
this energy into another person, he can heal that person.
Furthermore, Iron Fist can use his superhuman power to fuse his consciousness
temporarily with that of another person. This technique is called "mind
melding."
Other Abilities: Iron Fist is a master of the martial arts
of K'un-L'un and is also extremely adept at gymnastics and acrobatics.
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